The Securities Arbitration Commentator (SAC) recently took notice of a new investor education project that was spearheaded by our own Jason Doss. Mr. Doss is a recent past president of the Public Investors Arbitration Bar Association, or PIABA, and the current president of the PIABA Foundation. PIABA is an association of attorneys from around the country who represent investors against brokerage firms and their financial advisors. These investment-related disputes are resolved in arbitration proceedings and are often centered around investment fraud. The damage done to victims of investment fraud – both financial and emotional – can be devastating.

Having seen the devastation up close for many years, Mr. Doss wanted to help alleviate as much of it as possible. “Wouldn’t it be a good if we could help investors before they became victims,” he said.

Mr. Doss helped create the PIABA Foundation and has led the organization as its President to fulfill its mission of educating and protecting investors. Mr. Doss and the PIABA Foundation then collaborated with the Alliance for Investor Education (AIE) in producing a National Investor Town Hall Meeting on October 29 in San Diego that SAC blogged about. Mr. Doss also co-authored a book entitled “The Investors Guide to Protecting Your Financial Future,” and a short documentary entitled “Trust Me.” The video uses the inability of government to prevent repeated financial collapses as a starting point for learning how investment fraudsters operate and what investors can do to protect themselves. The video features the accounts of two actual investment fraud victims and commentary by several investor attorneys.

The Town Hall, book and video were a great success from all accounts. The promotional video marketing the event received 75,000 views on social media. Said SAC, “We’ve heard of AIE before. It may become a force in the field of investor education, if this Town Hall concept catches interest.” That is the Plan!